MetaFilter posts tagged with researchhttp://www.metafilter.com/tags/research
Posts tagged with 'research' at MetaFilter.Wed, 01 Jul 2015 15:20:51 -0800Wed, 01 Jul 2015 15:20:51 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60Africa's Innovatorshttp://www.metafilter.com/150880/Africas%2DInnovators
<blockquote>As part of our special focus on innovation in Africa, we have developed a list of 40 remarkable African innovators. Actually, it's more like 47 but we counted teams as one. Our decision to celebrate these idea creators and solution providers stems from our belief that the true wealth of Africa is not buried under its soil, but in the brains of its best minds. <a href="http://venturesafrica.com/features/40-african-innovators-to-watch/">This list is a testament to that belief.</a> </blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.150880Wed, 01 Jul 2015 15:20:51 -0800infiniMale and female mice process pain differently, study findshttp://www.metafilter.com/150842/Male%2Dand%2Dfemale%2Dmice%2Dprocess%2Dpain%2Ddifferently%2Dstudy%2Dfinds
<em><a href="http://www.sciencealert.com/male-and-female-mice-process-pain-differently-study-finds">New research into the pain processing of mice has found male and female mice process pain differently</a>, and the discovery may also apply to other species, including humans. Scientists are now questioning what this means for the future of medical research, which until now, has had a strong bias towards experimenting on male mice.</em> Sex bias in the subject of medical research has <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1761670/">been an issue</a> for a long time. This disparity has had a variety of <a href="http://www.afpafitness.com/research-articles/gender-bias-and-womens-health-issues">negative effects on women's outcomes</a> in health care. Last year, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/health/nih-tells-researchers-to-end-sex-bias-in-early-studies.html">the NIH rolled out a policy</a> of requiring medical researchers to use both male and female subjects in animal studies.
<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/148349/Hearts-a-mess">Previously.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.150842Tue, 30 Jun 2015 12:10:13 -0800sciatrixStaggeringhttp://www.metafilter.com/150353/Staggering
New U.S. <a href="http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ps.201400031">government research</a> indicates that <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-female-veteran-suicide-20150608-story.html#page=1">female military veterans commit suicide at nearly six times the rate of other women and at rates nearly equal to that of male veterans</a> -- a finding that surprised researchers because women are generally are far less likely than men to commit suicide. The findings raise questions about the backgrounds and experiences of women who serve in the United States' armed forces. <b>Summary</b>
* This was a cross-sectional study published in <em>Psychiatric Services</em>, which compiled 11 years' worth of data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
* The first study to directly compare veteran and non-veteran suicide risk while differentiating veterans by Veterans Health Administration (VHA) service use.
* Research compiled 11 years of data, covering all 173,969 adult suicides — men and women, veterans and non-veterans included in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs suicide data archive — in 23 states between 2000 and 2010.
* Annual standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed for veterans compared with non-veterans and for veterans who used VHA services compared with veterans who did not, overall and separately for males and females.
* The new data, which cover about half the veteran population, show that suicide rates rise sharply after service members leave the military.
* Women veterans' suicide rate (28.7 per 100,000) increased over a 10 year period, and is so high that it approaches the 32.1 rate of male veterans.
* Suicide rates are highest among young veterans
* For women ages 18 to 29, veterans kill themselves at nearly 12 times the rate of non-veterans.
* In every other age group, including women who served as far back as the 1950s, the veteran rates are between four and eight times higher, indicating that the causes extend far beyond the psychological effects of the recent wars.
* Male veterans 50 and older — the vast majority of whom served during the draft era, which ended in 1973 — had roughly the same suicide rates as non-veteran men their age. Only younger male veterans, who served in the all-volunteer force, had rates that exceeded those of other men.
* Overall, suicide rates for all veterans remain significantly above their civilian counterparts.
* Seeking help works. Suicide rates of veterans who seek care within the VHA system appear to have declining absolute and relative suicide rates. Of the 22 suicides a day, only about five are patients in the VA health system.
<strong>Factors</strong>
* "Their rates are astronomically high and climbing," said Jan Kemp, VA's National Mental Health Director for Suicide Prevention. "That's concerning to us." Reasons for the increase are unclear, but Kemp said the <a href="http://www.stripes.com/report-suicide-rate-spikes-among-young-veterans-1.261283">pressures of leaving military careers, readjusting to civilian life and combat injuries like post-traumatic stress disorder all play a role in the problems facing young male vets.</a>
* <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-female-veteran-suicide-20150608-story.html#page=1">LA Times</a>: <i><blockquote>"Claire Hoffmire, the VA epidemiologist who led the research pointed to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-military-childhood-volunteers-20140723-story.html">recent research showing</a>&nbsp;that men and women who join the military are more likely to have endured difficult childhoods, including emotional and sexual abuse.Other studies have found that Army personnel — before enlistment — had elevated rates of suicidal thinking, attempts and various <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/04/local/la-me-army-mental-illness-20140304">mental health problems</a>. Those studies did not break out the numbers for women.
Though the U.S. military has long provided camaraderie and a sense of purpose to men, it has been a harsher place for women. "They lack a sense of belonging," said Leisa Meyer, a historian at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and an expert on women in the military."</blockquote></i>
<strong>Further Reading</strong>
<a href="http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/suicide-data-report-2012-final.pdf">2012 report from the Department of Veteran Affairs</a>, on the effectiveness of their suicide reduction program, which began in 2007. Report was written by Drs. Kemp and Dr. Robert Bossarte, who conducted the most recent study with Dr. Hoffmire. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.150353Wed, 10 Jun 2015 07:01:19 -0800zarqHoTT Coqhttp://www.metafilter.com/150345/HoTT%2DCoq
<a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150519-will-computers-redefine-the-roots-of-math/">Univalent Foundations Redefines Mathematics</a> - "When a legendary mathematician found a mistake in his own work, he embarked on a computer-aided quest to eliminate human error. To succeed, he has to <a href="http://homotopytypetheory.org/book/">rewrite the century-old rules</a> underlying all of mathematics." (<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/126041/Computerized-Math-Formal-Proofs-andamp-Alternative-Logic">previously</a>) <a href="http://www.ams.org/notices/201309/rnoti-p1164.pdf">Voevodsky's Univalence Axiom in Homotopy Type Theory</a>
<blockquote>One of Voevodsky's goals (<a href="https://intelligence.org/2014/02/21/john-baez-on-research-tactics/">as we understand it</a>) is that, in a not too distant future, mathematicians will be able to verify the correctness of their own papers by working <a href="http://math.andrej.com/2014/01/13/univalent-foundations-subsume-classical-mathematics/">within the system of univalent foundations</a> formalized in a proof assistant and that doing so will become natural even for pure mathematicians (the same way that most mathematicians now typeset their own papers in TeX). We believe that this aspect of the <a href="http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/univalence+axiom">univalent foundations program</a> distinguishes it from other approaches to foundations by providing a practical utility for the working mathematician.</blockquote>
-<a href="http://www.science4all.org/le-nguyen-hoang/type-theory/">Type Theory: A Modern Computable Paradigm for Math</a>
-<a href="http://www.science4all.org/le-nguyen-hoang/homotopy-type-theory/">Homotopy Type Theory and Higher Inductive Types</a>
-<a href="http://www.science4all.org/le-nguyen-hoang/univalence/">Univalent Foundations of Mathematics</a>
also btw...
-<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNznD9hMEh0">James Simons interview</a>
-<a href="https://mathematicswithoutapologies.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/univalent-foundations-no-comment/">Univalent Foundations: "No Comment."</a> (<a href="http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2015/05/set-theory-type-theory-hott-univalent.html">via</a>)
-<a href="https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/there%E2%80%99s-more-to-mathematics-than-rigour-and-proofs/">There's more to mathematics than rigour and proofs</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.150345Tue, 09 Jun 2015 22:40:35 -0800kliulessHow to fix inequality: Squash the finance industry and redistribute morehttp://www.metafilter.com/150118/How%2Dto%2Dfix%2Dinequality%2DSquash%2Dthe%2Dfinance%2Dindustry%2Dand%2Dredistribute%2Dmore
<a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/05/video-stiglitz-on-inequality-wealth-and-growth-why-capitalism-is-failing.html">Joe Stiglitz on Inequality, Wealth, and Growth: Why Capitalism is Failing</a> (video; if you don't have 30m, skip to 20m for discussion of political inequality, wealth, credit and monetary policy) - "If the very rich can use their position to get higher returns, more investment information, more extraction of rents, and if the very rich have equal or higher savings rates, then wealth will become more concentrated... economic inequality inevitably gets translated into political inequality, and political inequality gets translated into more economic inequality. The basic and really important idea here is that markets don't exist in a vacuum, that market economies operate according to certain rules, certain regulations that specify how they work. And those effect the efficiency of those markets, but they also effect how the fruits of the benefits of those markets are distributed and the result of that is there are large numbers of aspects of our basic economic framework that in recent years have worked to increase the inequality of wealth and income in our society... leading to a society which can be better described, increasingly, as an inherited plutocracy." <blockquote>There's a third explanation which sees the growing wealth inequality as a result of misguided monetary policy... The government has, <i>de facto</i>, delegated responsibility for the creation <i>and allocation</i> of credit to private banks... so we've privatized a key national asset... This control over the credit creation process is a major source of inequality in our society.
[...]
V. Policy
More direct role of government in the provision of credit
<ul><li>Crisis showed that private markets were not good either in allocating credit or managing risk</li>
<li>Relatively little credit goes to productive investments</li>
<li>Importance of significant macro-economic externalities not taken into account by private sector</li></ul></blockquote>
<a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/05/the-rules-are-what-matter-for-inequality.htm">Mike Konczal: The Rules are What Matter for Inequality</a> - "As we argue, inequality is not inevitable: it is a choice that we've made with the rules that structure our economy. Over the past 35 years, the rules, or the regulatory, legal and institutional frameworks, that make up the economy and condition the market have changed. These rules are a major driver of the income distribution we see, including runaway top incomes and weak or precarious income growth for most others. Crucially, however, these changes in the rules have not made our economy better off than we would be otherwise; in many cases we are weaker for these changes."
-<a href="http://www.rewritetherules.org/">Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Shared Prosperity</a> (<a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5547c707e4b0e8aadbc53a05/t/55520236e4b0872f41a7058a/1431438002852/Rewriting+the+Rules+Report+Full+Report+-+Single+Page+Final.pdf">pdf</a>)
-<a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/27/8670749/stiglitz-report-rent-seeking">Vox explainer about Stiglitz and the Roosevelt Institute's economic policy ideas</a>
<blockquote>The problem isn't just one of distribution, the report argues. The problem is that the economy is fundamentally broken, shot through with opportunities for the rich to get richer not by building wealth but through exploitation and taking...
Stiglitz, Abernathy, Hersh, Holmberg, and Konczal have found a way to rearticulate left-of-center economic policies as more than just attempts to even out the income distribution or expand the safety net for its own sake. Those are worthy goals, but so is boosting economic growth. The report challenge the idea that growth requires getting out of the way of the market, and embraces the notion that it requires constant, active government intervention. It's a necessary and bracing challenge to years of conventional wisdom, in which being "pro-growth" and "pro-market" were seen as basically equivalent. Markets fail, Stiglitz and his co-authors remind us, and when they do the government is needed to set them right.</blockquote>
also btw...
<ul><li><a href="http://glineq.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-age-of-open-financial-imperialism.html">The age of open financial imperialism</a>[<a href="https://twitter.com/AnnPettifor/status/603868578857779202">*</a>] - "Until some twenty years ago, the world was structured (at least in principle) around two simple rules: within nations: 1 person = 1 vote; at the international level: 1 country = 1 vote. Globalization requires some changes in the latter. But surely, it would be thoroughly regressive, although not in discord with the spirit of our age, to go both nationally and globally to the new single rule, as proposed by Nate: 1 dollar = 1 vote."</li>
<li><a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/64c2f03a-03a0-11e5-a70f-00144feabdc0.html">Why finance is too much of a good thing</a> - "We have a great deal of evidence that too much finance damages economic stability and growth, distorts the distribution of income, undermines confidence in the market economy, corrupts politics and leads to an explosive and, in all probability, ineffective rise in regulation. This ought to worry everybody."</li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/bull-market/when-is-a-felony-not-a-felony-when-you-re-a-bank-232a5371d7c1">When is a Felony Not a Felony? When You're a Bank</a> - "It's not enough that the banks are avoiding prison — they needed a guarantee they wouldn't see the regulatory equivalent of probation, either."</li>
<li><a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/05/how-to-reduce-income-inequality.html">How to Reduce Income Inequality</a> - "<a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/05/whatever-happened-to-antitrust.html">I would add</a>: Do more to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w">eliminate monopoly</a> and monopsony power (they distort the flow of income)."</li>
<ol><li>Tax appreciated assets when inherited or transferred inter-vivos.</li>
<li>Raise income tax rates on capital income — capital gains and dividends — to levels just below labor, e.g. maximum rate at true current marginal tax rate or 30%. And curtail practices of defining earnings as capital income, e.g. "carried interest" provisions.</li>
<li>Reduce political rents: close tax loopholes that benefit mainly the wealthy (e.g. cap on deductions for employer-provided health insurance); turn deductions that benefit the richest into credits, many refundable, to benefit lower- and middle-income families; allow drug purchases at "best price" rates, not market rates, for Medicare; get rid of oil and gas exploration tax subsidies; limit and phase out agricultural subsidies.</li>
<li>Use tax revenue to improve public infrastructure (including internet).</li>
<li>Improve college prep classes and college counseling for students.</li>
<li>More and better apprenticeships (get employers involved).</li>
<li>Raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour, index it, and enforce labor laws (e.g. on scheduling).</li>
<li>Universal child allowance at $2,500 per child, refundable if this is more than income taxes owed, and separate from the EITC.</li>
<li>Profit sharing among all long-term (full year or more) employees.</li></ol>
<li><a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/05/inequality-what-to-do-about-it.html">Inequality - What To Do About It?</a> "Inequality has been on the rise since the 1970s - Tony Atkinson and Sabine Alkire ask what can be done about it?"</li>
<li><a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com//2015/05/23/a-conversation-about-inequality-and-atkinson/">A Conversation About Inequality and Atkinson</a> - "Tony Atkinson, in many ways the father of modern inequality research, has a terrific new book — 'Inequality: What Can be Done?' — that is, um, about inequality and what can be done. A few weeks ago Janet Gornick, director of the LIS data center, led Bob Solow and yours truly [Paul Krugman] in a wide-ranging discussion of issues raised by Tony's book."</li>
<li><a href="http://milescorak.com/2015/02/01/after-piketty-12-policy-proposes-to-reduce-inequality-of-outcomes/">After Piketty: 12 policy proposes to reduce inequality of outcomes</a></li>
<ol><li>The direction of technological change should be an explicit concern of policy-makers, encouraging innovation that increases the employability of workers, notably by emphasizing the human dimension of service provision.</li>
<li>Public policy should aim to reduce market power in consumer markets, and to re-balance bargaining power between employers and workers, contribute to reducing the share of capital.</li>
<li>Return to a more progressive rate structure for the personal income tax, with a top rate of 65 per cent on the top 1 per cent of incomes.</li>
<li>The government should offer guaranteed employment at the living wage to everyone who seeks it.</li>
<li>Employers should adopt ethical pay policies that share common principles, and the adoption of such a policy should be a pre-condition for eligibility to supply goods or services to public bodies.</li>
<li>Increased taxation of investment income via the re-introduction of earned income relief in the personal income tax, so that earnings are taxed at a lower rate over an initial range.</li>
<li>A fresh examination of the case for an annual wealth tax, and the prerequisites for its successful introduction.</li>
<li>All receipts of inheritance and gifts inter vivos to be taxed <em>either</em> under a lifetime capital receipts tax <em>or</em> under the personal income tax, with appropriate averaging provisions and thresholds.</li>
<li>The government via National Savings should return to offering a guaranteed positive (and possibly subsidised) real rate of interest on savings, up to a maximum per person.</li>
<li>The encouragement of institutions to represent the interests of savers and to provide alternative outlets for saving not driven by shareholder interests, aided by the establishment of a publicly-funded money advice service providing independent guidance free to all savers.</li>
<li>A capital endowment for all, either at adulthood or at a later date.</li>
<li>An EU initiative for a participation income as a basis for social protection, starting with a universal basic income for children.</li></ol>
<li><a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/the-case-of-the-missing-minsky/">The Case of the Missing Minsky</a>[<a href="http://equitablegrowth.org/2015/06/01/brief-thoughts-barry-eichengreen-new-economic-thinking/">*</a>] - "Why did the system become so vulnerable? Was it deregulation (or failure of regulation to keep up with institutional change)? Simple forgetting, as memories of past crises faded? Excessively loose policy?"</li>
<li><a href="https://www.fedinprint.org/items/fedpbr/00021.html">The redistributive consequences of monetary policy</a> - "Monetary policy is not intended to benefit one segment of the population at the expense of another by redistributing income and wealth. But as Makoto Nakajima explains, it is probably impossible to avoid such redistributive consequences."</li>
<li><a href="http://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2015/05/why-helicopter-money-is-political.html">Why helicopter money is a political economy issue</a> - "From a macroeconomic point of view, there is an obvious way around this deficit obsession, and that is to finance any fiscal stimulus using money rather than debt. In a recession creating money does not create an inflation problem, as we have all seen in the last few years with Quantitative Easing (QE). The problem with this textbook solution (often called money financed fiscal stimulus) is that we have ruled it out by creating independent central banks. Governments cannot create money to finance fiscal stimulus. Central banks are creating money - lots of it - but can only use that to buy assets. Whatever political economy problem independent central banks have helped to solve, they have restricted our policy options in what has turned out to be a very serious way."</li>
<li><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11507810/Iceland-looks-at-ending-boom-and-bust-with-radical-money-plan.html">Iceland looks at ending boom and bust with radical money plan</a> - "Icelandic government suggests removing the power of commercial banks to create money and handing it to the central bank."</li>
<li><a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6773cec8-deaf-11e4-8a01-00144feab7de.html">Iceland's daring raid on fractional reserve banks</a> - "In recent years Scandinavian central bankers have shown the same dauntless appetite for exploration that once saw Nordic ships fan out across the globe. In this spirit Reykjavik should give sovereign money a shot. Nations far bigger and meaner than Iceland have struggled to come to grips with financial excess through conventional means. As well as showing other countries a potential way forward, by bringing the axe down on fractional reserve banking the Icelanders might just regain some control over their economic destiny."</li>
<li><a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/04/08/2125780/icelands-grand-monetary-experiment/">Iceland's grand monetary experiment?</a> - "One of the oddest things about the aftermath of the financial crisis is the extent to which things haven't changed. Yes, there are plenty of new rules, and stress tests, and of course there are more fines for wrongdoing, but the basic structure of the financial system doesn't look much different from before it blew up. There is still plenty of money to be made (and lost) issuing short-term 'safe' debt to buy long-term, illiquid, risky assets. Lenders still exacerbate the cycle by increasing their leverage when asset prices rise only to cut back on lending when the economy sours. And everyone knows that taxpayers are still on the hook when things go bad, which acts as a massive subsidy for the financial industry. As if all that weren't bad enough, the current system makes it far too hard for central bankers to accomplish their mission of stabilising the economy."</li>
<blockquote>If implemented, it would dramatically improve the ability of central bankers to stabilise nominal spending without distorting the composition of economic activity.
However, the current proposal leaves open a large loophole in the way that banks can fund themselves, to say nothing of bank-like financial firms. <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/146351/Death-of-Banks">Closing this loophole would require more radical measures</a>, such as a requirement that all investments are funded by equity, or by venture capital-style lockups.</blockquote>
<li><a href="http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/04/should-iceland-abolish-fractional-reserve-banking.html">Should Iceland abolish fractional reserve banking?</a> - "The government will create new money by printing and injecting it into the economy through fiscal policy... Under this scenario, how powerful does the state become? On what do they spend the money?</li>
<li><a href="http://climateerinvest.blogspot.com/2014/11/top-icelandic-banker-jailed-for-role-in.html">Top Icelandic banker jailed for role in 2008 financial collapse</a> - "The former head of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki has been sentenced to a 12-month jail term. Sigurjon Arnason was on trial for his role in the collapse of the financial sector in 2008. Two other of the banks executives received nine month sentences."</li>
<li><a href="http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2015/05/the-brailsfordian-road-to-socialism.html">The Brailsfordian road to socialism</a> - " 'Small changes can have big effects' wrote Duflo and Banerjee. The transition to socialism will not happen by protesting, emoting or even perhaps by voting. It'll come instead by small and individually innocuous steps."</li>
<li><a href="http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2015/05/our-kids-and-coming-apart.html">Our Kids and Coming Apart</a> - "External forces, such as automation and global economic competition... are exacerbated by an increasingly winner take all economic system."</li>
<li><a href="http://continuations.com/post/119930478310/going-past-capital">Going Past Capital</a> - "The current transition is as profound as the ones from the forager age to the agrarian age and from there to the industrial age... The agrarian system worked reasonably well while the interests of land owners were somewhat aligned with those of peasants. That broke down with the technologies for industrial production. The industrial system worked reasonably well while the interest of capitalists were somewhat aligned with those of workers. That is breaking down now with information technologies. Just as we had to go past land back then we now need to go past capital. Current policies such as quantitative easing and austerity are all designed to continue to support capital in a mistaken view that it still is the critical factor. What then is the critical factor going forward? I have argued <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/146419/Dealing-with-the-transition-to-the-information-age">previously</a> that it is knowledge (in my own broad definition). The argument for Universal Basic Income then is that it enables us to go past capital towards knowledge by freeing everyone to participate in its creation and maintenance."</li>
<li><a href="http://continuations.com/post/120441905170/technological-underemployment-addressing-common">Technological Underemployment: Addressing Common Objections</a> - "<i>We won't run out of things to do. Humans are creative and think up new things.</i> I believe that also. But that's not the question at all when it comes to employment. The question is can you get *paid* for whatever it is that you do."</li></ul>
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*<a href="https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/603688451389714432">The basic platform of Stiglitz and the Roosevelt Institute</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.150118Tue, 02 Jun 2015 02:02:48 -0800kliulessGrowing up as a child research subjecthttp://www.metafilter.com/149787/Growing%2Dup%2Das%2Da%2Dchild%2Dresearch%2Dsubject
<blockquote>If I do something clumsy or awkward, a sort of mental flag pops up in my head, and it bears a chimp's face. Once someone caught me, at 13, picking my nose in school: was that a lingering habit from my time among the chimps? Our family cats hated me because I could not keep my hands off them; even more than usual for a small child, I always wanted to pick them up. Perhaps furry things seemed more welcoming to me than they did to other children. In my early 20s, I caught myself sitting cross-legged at a desk chair. That's a regular habit of mine, but on that day I happened to be sitting in a courtroom — as counsel at a defense table. I blamed the chimps then, too. But that's what I tell myself, of course. I don't tell others about the chimps much. </blockquote>
In "<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/20/8625933/child-development-study-risks-little-albert-ethics">Monkey Day Care</a>," Michelle Dean writes for The Verge about her recollections of being a child participant in primate research, her frustrating attempt to find out more about the study, and about the history of and ethical questions about such research. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.149787Wed, 20 May 2015 10:22:18 -0800StaceyNepal, Anthropology, and Earthquakeshttp://www.metafilter.com/149278/Nepal%2DAnthropology%2Dand%2DEarthquakes
<blockquote>"Many of the places and peoples most severely hit were the poorest, those in villages close to the epicenter where homes are made from mud and wood. Homes that collapsed in the earthquake. Homes in regions where there are no vehicular roads, where already weak communication infrastructure is now not operative, where rescue and relief operations are struggling to reach. Some of these villages are known to anthropology students around the world. <a href="http://savageminds.org/2015/04/30/gone-the-earthquake-in-nepal/">For better or worse, Nepal has a deep ethnographic literature, much of it centered on the sort of mountain villages so devastated by the earthquake... Some of these villages are gone</a>.</blockquote> ---
<blockquote><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/nepals-relief-effort-must-reach-the-rural-poor/article24135973/">Calls to our research partners in hill and mountain districts across the country revealed that villagers are reeling from injuries, death and the destruction of already precarious livelihoods on a massive scale</a>. One villager told us that although his family and many others were unharmed, his home of mud and stone, like the entire village, was a pile of rubble. For many of the rural poor, a two-story home is a most prized asset. While their plight may not make the international headlines, rural Nepalis across the country will need long-term support to rebuild their lives. </blockquote>
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<blockquote><a href="http://m.independent.com/news/2015/apr/27/help-nepal/?templates=mobile">We knew it was coming. But now that it is here, the world, for those of us who know and love Nepal, has shifted.</a> Having escaped being crushed by a water tank, a friend in Kathmandu says, "My heart keeps shaking." A text message comes in from another friend from rural Nepal, far from the epicenter but still impacted: "My house is not able to live."</blockquote>
---
<blockquote>It might be tempting to think that delays over writing Nepal's long-awaited constitution don't matter, that life can go on as normal without political resolution (and many Nepalis, bored with the games of political musical chairs in Kathmandu, had begun to think just that). <a href="http://theconversation.com/could-nepals-messy-politics-hamper-relief-efforts-40903">But the earthquake shows just how vital it is to have political institutions that work, both at the centre and, even more importantly, at the local level</a>. </blockquote>
---
<blockquote>It is hard to apply a critical lens to disaster relief; it can so easily appear cruel, misplaced and selfish. <a href="http://www.humanosphere.org/basics/2015/04/from-remote-nepal-a-warning-against-ahistorical-disaster-relief/">Yet, we have the obligation to consider both the possibilities and limits of medical humanitarianism, or any humanitarian effort, as the international community wrestles with how best to help Nepal</a>.</blockquote>
---
<blockquote>Anthropological lessons from Haiti: "<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122567412">I am worried about Haiti's future</a>. In the immediate moment we need help, rescue missions of all kinds. I am concerned about weeks from now when we are no longer front-page news."</blockquote>
---
From <a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/">Global Voices</a>, citizen media from Nepal:
<blockquote>I live in the UK, but I was born in Thaprek VDC in Nuwakot district, about 100 km north-west of Kathmandu. Nuwakot district is very close to the earthquake's epicentre.<a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/04/28/nepalquake-a-tale-of-personal-and-national-tragedy/"> Saturday's massive earthquake annihilated my entire village, including my home. Nature has rendered me homeless.</a>
-
Your house has just collapsed. People are screaming on the street. You cannot reach your brother who is in another part of town as all the phones are down. But you can still post things on Facebook and inform your friends in China or in New York about your whereabouts. <a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/04/26/global-social-media-lifeline-in-nepal-earthquake-aftermath/">This is Kathmandu since April 25, within hours of the worst earthquake to have hit the country in 80 years.</a>
-
While Nepal is still struggling to grasp the quake's impact, <a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/04/29/in-the-face-of-destruction-nepal-refuses-to-be-broken/">people on the ground are now pushing a new narrative of "getting back to normal," trying to broaden the media's focus beyond stories of loss.</a></blockquote>--- tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.149278Thu, 30 Apr 2015 17:30:55 -0800ChuraChuraLife Lineshttp://www.metafilter.com/148976/Life%2DLines
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/30/an-artist-with-amnesia">For an artist with amnesia, the world takes place through her pencil.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148976Mon, 20 Apr 2015 03:37:28 -0800ellieBOAAnthropology, already readhttp://www.metafilter.com/148932/Anthropology%2Dalready%2Dread
<a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/dejalu/index.html">Déjà Lu</a> republishes locally-selected scholarly articles from journals connected to <a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/members/members_descr.shtml">regional anthropological associations</a> around the world. The result is a PDF-heavy but fascinating collection of long reads on obscure topics. <a href="http://savageminds.org/2015/04/17/deja-lu-now-more-than-ever/">Via</a>. Some articles from the 2015 issue:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/beek.pdf">State violence specialists (i.e. police, military, and other users of authorized force)</a> in Ghana and Niger</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/pincuo.pdf">Two eloquent funeral speeches</a> from southwestern China</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/quin.pdf">The relevance of James Joyce</a> to anthropology and ethnographic representation</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/andrello.pdf">The construction of cultural heritage and the cartography of sacred places</a> in Brazil</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/brisset-foucault.pdf">The structure and significance of public radio debates</a> in Uganda</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/gandolfo.pdf">Extralegal norms of "informality"</a> in Peru</li>
<li><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01535.x/full">Intellectual property regimes and life itself</a> in Costa Rica</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/iyigun.pdf">Royal mothers and military ambitions</a> in the Ottoman Empire</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/kawharu.pdf">Social concomitants of the Waitangi Tribunal claims process</a> in New Zealand</li>
<li><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1683478X.2013.852718">Familial feelings toward dogs</a> in urban Japan</li>
<li>Tim Ingold's Westermarck Memorial Lecture, "<a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2015/ingold.pdf">Anthropology Beyond Humanity</a>"</li>
</ul>
Some articles from the 2014 issue:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2014/%C4%90or%C4%91evi%C4%87.pdf">Media representations of an interrupted football game</a> in former Yugoslavia</li>
<li><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1683478X.2012.10600851">The discovery of 2000 human fetuses in the morgue of a Buddhist temple</a> in Thailand</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2014/Thurston.pdf">One family's New Year's celebration</a> in a village in Tibet</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2014/hawks.pdf">Genetic and morphological variability within Neandertals</a> [<a href="http://johnhawks.net/">John Hawks</a>, previously: <a href="https://www.metafilter.com/119062/Otzi-was-More-Neanderthal-than-You">1</a>, <a href="https://www.metafilter.com/67338/Humans-are-evolving-rapidly">2</a>, <a href="https://www.metafilter.com/44956/Brain-Gain">3</a>, <a href="https://www.metafilter.com/143438/Coming-soon-to-a-health-store-near-you">4</a>, etc.]</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2014/Archambault.pdf?pdf=Archambault">The everyday significance of mobile phones</a> in southern Mozambique</li>
<li>An interview with Jean and John Comaroff on <a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2014/comaroff_en.pdf">the anthropology of the state and the state of anthropology</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2014/Sites-2012-Trnka-McLauchlan.pdf">The normalization of childhood asthma</a> in New Zealand
<li>Joel Robbins's Westermarck Memorial Lecture, "<a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/feb_2014/robbins.pdf">Transcendence and the Anthropology of Christianity</a>"</li>
</li></ul>
Some articles from the 2013 issue:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/colwell.pdf">The collection and disposition of human remains from 9/11</a> in the United States</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/gilmore.pdf">A closely observed Swahili pidgin created by two five-year-old-boys</a> in Kenya</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/hayashi.pdf">The pedagogical significance of letting kids watch fights in preschool</a> in Japan</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/bainton.pdf">The relevance of sacred geography to mining politics and mortuary songs</a> on a group of islands in Papua New Guinea</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/brenner.pdf">Gender and sexuality as contested issues in Islamic and democratic social movements</a> in Indonesia</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/siochain.pdf">Roger Casement's thoughts on empire and indigenous rights</a> in view of his Congo and Putumayo investigations</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/pollard.pdf">Feelings of loneliness, shame, loss, betrayal, despair, disappointment, fear, frustration, guilt, paranoia, stress, regret, and more</a> during the conduct of ethnographic research</li>
</ul> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148932Sat, 18 Apr 2015 04:56:09 -0800Monsieur CautionI present to you the top-three mind-blowing concepts...http://www.metafilter.com/148919/I%2Dpresent%2Dto%2Dyou%2Dthe%2Dtop%2Dthree%2Dmind%2Dblowing%2Dconcepts
<a href="https://thenib.com/come-as-you-are-2763d6e18e04">"Come As You Are"</a> an illustrated book review at <i>The Nib</i> and <a href="http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/come-as-you-are-2/">mirrored</a> at <i><a href="http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/">Oh Joy Sex Toy</a></i> [<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/129521/Were-the-anal-safety-snailsReminding-you-to-start-slowly">previously</a>] by Erika Moen &amp; Matthew Nolan. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148919Fri, 17 Apr 2015 10:05:23 -0800joseph conrad is fully awesomeCharging toward an era of genetically modified humanshttp://www.metafilter.com/148874/Charging%2Dtoward%2Dan%2Dera%2Dof%2Dgenetically%2Dmodified%2Dhumans
<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/site/extra/crispr/">The CRISPR Revolution</a> [<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6230/36.full">ungated</a>: <a href="https://www.docenti.unina.it/downloadPub.do?tipoFile=md&id=433179">1</a>,<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/site/products/collectionbooks/CRISPR-Cas9_booklet_HighRes.pdf">2</a>,<a href="http://longnow.org/revive/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-mutagenic-chain-reaction-A-method-for-converting-heterozygous-to-homozygous-mutations-Valentino-M.-Gantz_-and-Ethan-Bier.pdf">3</a>] - "Biologists continue to hone their tools for deleting, replacing or otherwise editing DNA and a strategy called CRISPR has quickly become one of the most popular ways to do genome engineering. Utilizing a modified bacterial protein and a RNA that guides it to a specific DNA sequence, the CRISPR system provides unprecedented control over genes in many species, including perhaps humans. This control has allowed many new types of experiments, but also raised questions about what CRISPR can enable." <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150206-crispr-dna-editor-bacteria/">CRISPR Natural History in Bacteria</a> - "We've barely begun to understand how CRISPR works in the natural world. Microbes use it as a sophisticated immune system, allowing them to learn to recognize their enemies. Now scientists are discovering that microbes use CRISPR for other jobs as well. The natural history of CRISPR poses many questions to scientists, for which they don't have very good answers yet. But it also holds great promise. <a href="http://catalyst.berkeley.edu/slideshow/the-crispr-revolution/">Doudna</a> and <a href="http://rna.berkeley.edu/people.html">her colleagues</a> harnessed one type of CRISPR, but scientists are finding a vast menagerie of different types. Tapping that diversity could lead to more effective gene editing technology, or open the way to applications no one has thought of yet."
<blockquote><a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fnrg%2Fjournal%2Fvaop%2Fncurrent%2Ffull%2Fnrg3942.html&ei=q18vVb_bK5H2oASuqICIAg&usg=AFQjCNGNuHJbz3Vbep0-SdT8NSXcyd56AA&sig2=735sCjTXSufjWH-sTQvM0g&bvm=bv.91071109,d.cGU">A New Kind of Evolution</a>: Did this mean that CRISPR meets the requirements for Lamarckian inheritance? "In my humble opinion, it does," said <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Koonin/">Koonin</a>.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pp17E4E-O8">Genome Editing with CRISPR-Cas9: Allowing the creation of transgenic animals with targeted mutations</a> - "This video illustrates how CRISPR and Cas9 can help microbes fight viruses and how researchers might use that system to edit human genes."
<a href="http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2015/03/apres-nous-le-deluge.html">Après nous le déluge</a> - "<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/126109/China-is-engineering-genius-babies">Rumors are rife</a>, presumably from anonymous peer reviewers, that scientists in China have already used CRISPR on human embryos and have submitted papers on their results."
<a href="http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2015/04/gene-drive.html">Gene drive</a> - "<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/136549/Nice-basic-guide-to-the-three-new-ish-tools-for-rewriting-Genes#5417346">George Church</a>, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston who is a leader in the field, believes the new study should not have been published, because it does not include measures to restrain the spread of unintended mutations. 'It is a step too far', he says."
<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Flets-hit-pause-before-altering-humankind-1428536400&ei=Ua8uVbC1Ds2pogT4jYGIBw&usg=AFQjCNFw1MXP6kzzGMI0HmTMXSSfuArHEA&sig2=gZYPelkpAVYAEZRgEVGggg&bvm=bv.90790515,d.cGU&cad=rja">Let's Hit 'Pause' Before Altering Humankind</a> - "Two Nobel laureates on gene technology capable of making changes that are heritable by generations to come."
<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-19/scientists-have-dna-scissors-to-snip-out-your-genes-but-should-they-">Scientists Have Created 'DNA Scissors' That Can Alter Your Genes, but Should They Use Them?</a> - "A spectacular discovery made in 2012 has turned human genome research on its head. Careful what you wish for, comes the warning... The genetic code is the software that runs living things, and just as with digital technology, DNA is being upgraded, from a read-only to a read-write medium."
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charging-toward-an-era-of-genetically-modified-humans/2015/02/05/39c3a22c-acbf-11e4-9c91-e9d2f9fde644_story.html">It's time for the United States to talk about genetics</a> - "After roughly 4 billion years of evolution by natural selection, we are on the verge of taking active control of our evolutionary process."
<a href="http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/03/derek-lowe-on-crispr-from-the-comments.html">Derek Lowe on CRISPR, from the comments</a> - "Many of the possibilities that people are most worried about are harder to pin down, though. There's no single gene for height, for example, or intelligence (or Alzheimer's or diabetes, for that matter, to stick with the fixing-what's-broken part of the landscape). Many of the really sticky issues are still a bit downstream, awaiting a better understanding of the human genome, but the big fundamental one is indeed here now: the first deliberate editing of the human genetic inheritance."
<a href="http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/03/the-crispr-revolution-seems-to-be-here-is-this-the-coming-of-eugenics.html">The CRISPR revolution seems to be here, is this the coming of eugenics?</a> - "I believe the implications of all this — and its nearness to actual realization — have not yet hit either economics or the world of ideas more generally."
also btw...
-<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/536736/crispr-patent-fight-now-a-winner-take-all-match/">CRISPR Patent Fight Now a Winner-Take-All Match</a>
-<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/203473/whos-getting-rich-your-genes">Health, ethics, or money: What's really driving CRISPR debate?</a>
-<a href="http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/crispr-cas9-pioneer-starts-recruiting-rd-group-cambridge-hub/2015-04-07">CRISPR-Cas9 pioneer starts recruiting R&amp;D group in Cambridge hub</a>
-<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cellectis-plant-sciences-inc-locks-early-crispr-intellectual-property-uses-in-plants-2015-04-15">Cellectis Plant Sciences, Inc. Locks Early CRISPR Intellectual Property Uses in Plants</a>
[<a href="http://infoproc.blogspot.com/search?q=crispr&by-date=true">previously</a>: <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/136549/Nice-basic-guide-to-the-three-new-ish-tools-for-rewriting-Genes">1</a>,<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/141918/Controlling-the-genetics-of-wild-populations-a-next-step-in-GM-research">2</a>,<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/143747/Super-Intelligent-Humans-are-Coming">3</a>,<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/147762/Engineering-the-Perfect-Baby">4</a>,<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/contribute/search.mefi?site=mefi&q=crispr">5</a>] tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148874Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:12:39 -0800kliulessGotta catch 'em allhttp://www.metafilter.com/148770/Gotta%2Dcatch%2Dem%2Dall
<em>As an archivist, my ethical duty is to maintain those objects of intrinsic value to future generations. I've often found that others assume my profession is focused on facts and figures, the hard data from which a census or otherwise lifeless historical record can be drawn. Such data will inform one on how a people survived. As important as this data is, it cannot tell you how a people <strong><a href="https://archaeogaming.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/keeping-our-games-alive-video-game-archiving-and-preservation/">dreamed</a></strong>.</em> With the Electronic Software Association <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/videogame-publishers-no-preserving-abandoned-games-even-museums-and-archives">declaring it impossible to do without enabling piracy</a>, that whole <a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/readers-give-their-takes-on-the-state-and-complexi-107262">slippery business</a> of <a href="http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Can_we_catch_%E2%80%98em_all%3F">video game archiving</a> and its layers of <a href="http://www.usgamer.net/articles/whats-so-secret-about-classic-game-curation">tangled up rights ownerships and baffling legal obfuscation</a> <small>[<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/142725/Your-weekly-dose-of-nostalgia">previously</a>]</small> is getting <a href="http://gamesnosh.com/preserving-game-history/">talked about</a> again. Some are <a href="http://markbruno.me/2015/03/12/the-death-of-video-game-archiving/">not very happy</a> about <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/143579/Gamergate-as-we-know-it-now-is-a-hate-group">everyone's favorite</a> internet mob harassing leading researchers and generally <a href="http://zennistrad.tumblr.com/post/113151511988/gamergate-is-killing-video-games">trying to destroy the medium</a> they profess to love, but don't let that distract you from the awesome <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/how-will-historians-study-video-games/281767/">work</a> that's <a href="http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/academics/the-open-library/">still</a> <a href="http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/continuousplay/">being</a> <a href="http://www.lib.umich.edu/computer-video-game-archive">done</a>. It is a largely thankless and necessary endeavor to rescue the medium from the <a href="http://www.1up.com/features/missing-notable-games-lost-to-time">industry's own infamous incompetence</a>.
<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/144142/Archiveorg-Gets-an-Arcade">And</a> <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/135139/Resplendent-with-simple-graphics-and-simpler-rules">don't</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/consolelivingroom">forget</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/internetarcade">about</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/classicpcgames">the</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/gamevideos">Internet Archive</a>! tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148770Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:23:18 -0800byanyothernameHuggability seems to be a plushttp://www.metafilter.com/148265/Huggability%2Dseems%2Dto%2Dbe%2Da%2Dplus
<a href="http://hellogiggles.com/perfect-man-study">What the "perfect" man looks like, according to men and women</a> <blockquote>So, according to almost every movie ever, we're supposed to be most attracted to beefy men with glistening muscles, smoky (and kinda dangerous) eyes that make us feel like they suspect our very darkest, deepest secrets, and thighs that look like they've been subjected to Olympic training. Examples of these "idealized" men include (but are totally not limited to, obvs) Brad Pitt, Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith, and Jason Mamoa. In the end, it turns out the ideal dude isn't Brad, Chris, Will, OR Jason. It's the "Boy Next Door."</blockquote> <blockquote>While the study isn't without flaws —only heterosexual men and women were accounted for, the test pool is entirely UK-based, and the outcome still involves some "idealized" version of a person— the results are still intriguing. The study concludes that it's not that super fit men aren't easy on the eyes, it's just that gals prefer a "softer" body. "Men with well-toned bodies are, initially, regarded as attractive, but it is the man with the little bit of excess flab around the waist who often wins the day," the study states.</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148265Tue, 24 Mar 2015 09:47:39 -0800LexicaStop, Drop the Beat, and Rollhttp://www.metafilter.com/148258/Stop%2DDrop%2Dthe%2DBeat%2Dand%2DRoll
For their senior project, George Mason University students Seth Robertson and Viet Tran decided to ignore all of their professors and classmates who told them their idea was terrible. They proceeded to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/when-it-comes-to-putting-out-fire-gmu-students-show-its-all-about-that-bass/2015/03/22/47a7f8e8-cf1a-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html">invent a fire extinguisher that uses sound waves</a> instead of chemicals to put out fires. The project was partially inspired by the fact that traditional fire extinguishers do not work in space. <blockquote> The Robertson/Tran sound wave device is free of toxic chemicals and eliminates collateral damage from sprinkler systems. Mounted on drones it could improve safety for firefighters confronting large forest fires or urban blazes. "Fire is a huge issue in space," said Tran. "In space, extinguisher contents spread all over. But you can direct sound waves without gravity," explained Robertson.</blockquote>
If you want to learn more about the planning and construction process, you can still read through their <a href="https://prezi.com/v_ysltnjlzfl/wave-extinguisher/">Senior Project Prezi presentation</a>.
Given the use of fluorocarbons in traditional fire extinguishers and the <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-chemicals-are-used-i/">history of other dangerous chemicals used in their manufacture</a> (halons were only removed from the spray mixture in 1994), there are many potential uses for this technology. One profession already interested in the bass frequency generator is Emergency Services, since they have reason to be concerned about <a href="http://www.emergencymgmt.com/health/Health-Risks-Fire-Extinguishers.html">how dangerous it is for firefighters and other first responders</a> to potentially inhale the chemicals currently used in extinguishers, which have been linked to cardiac arrest and acute respiratory distress.
<a href="http://volgenau.gmu.edu/home/-/asset_publisher/HNSOWRmBcc5U/content/pump-up-the-bass-to-douse-a-blaze-mason-students%E2%80%99-invention-fights-fires">And which bass works best?</a> "Initially, both students thought big speakers and high frequencies would douse a fire. "But it's low-frequency sounds – like the thump-thump bass in hip-hop that works," said Tran, who joked that rappers like 50 Cent could probably douse a fire, and that hip-hop celebrity endorsements might be just the ticket to hawk their fire extinguisher." tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148258Tue, 24 Mar 2015 07:13:57 -0800a fiendish thingyWhen your phone is also your doctorhttp://www.metafilter.com/147925/When%2Dyour%2Dphone%2Dis%2Dalso%2Dyour%2Ddoctor
The early days of Apple's ResearchKit software seem set to revolutionize clinical research recruitment, with one Parkinson's study enrolling thousands of people in just a few hours. <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/10/8177683/apple-research-kit-app-ethics-medical-research">Apple's new ResearchKit: 'Ethics quagmire' or medical research aid?</a>, from The Verge, discusses some of the ethical quandaries surrounding recruitment for medical studies via mobile app. <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2896832/apple-updates-developer-guidelines-for-medical-research-apps.html">A follow-up article</a> discusses some changes already made to the developer guidelines to address some of these concerns about informed consent and data sharing. <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/03/will-the-iphone-transform-medicine-the-fda-may-have-something-to-say/">Ars Technica</a> covers the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory requirements for medical devices and how they may apply to mobile apps, including those using ResearchKit. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.147925Fri, 13 Mar 2015 19:04:09 -0800Stacey"Diversity fuels conversation and creativity"http://www.metafilter.com/147819/Diversity%2Dfuels%2Dconversation%2Dand%2Dcreativity
<a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/2014/12/23/you-are-welcome-here-small-stickers-make-a-big-difference-for-lgbtq-scientists/">"You Are Welcome Here": Small Stickers Make a Big Difference for LGBTQ Scientists</a> <blockquote>Upon entering, I immediately noticed tiny stickers dotting the halls: the iconic WHOI ship, sailing in front of a rainbow sky over the words, "You are welcome here." I can't describe how powerful it was to see those welcome messages on the office doors of scientists' whose work had inspired me to pursue biological oceanography – in a building commemorating an oceanographer, Alfred C. Redfield, who discovered a conserved atomic ratio between carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus that I think about in my research every day. The ship stickers are small, maybe even easy to miss if you're not attuned, but they packed a punch strong enough to rid me of my worries. I left the Redfield Building with renewed vigor, confident about what I was pursuing, only worried about feet that were literally wet, but not figuratively.</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.147819Wed, 11 Mar 2015 05:23:46 -0800LexicaHither and Jawnhttp://www.metafilter.com/147145/Hither%2Dand%2DJawn
<a href="http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~jeisenst/papers/dialectology-chapter.pdf">New research examines the spread (or not) of local dialectical terms on Twitter.</a> [PDF] While words like hella have gone nationwide on Twitter, Cleveland's <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=ctfu">ctfu</a> (cracking the fuck up), Chicago's <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=lbvs">lbvs</a> (laughing but very serious) or Philadelphia's <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=jawn">jawn</a> (joint ...and <a href="http://citypaper.net/Blogs/The-etymology-of-jawn/">a lot of things</a>) see less spread. [<a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/social-sciences/2015/02/are-yinz-frfr-what-your-twitter-dialect-says-about-where-you-live">via</a>] tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.147145Wed, 18 Feb 2015 10:43:29 -0800me3diaNeville Brody rebrands his studio after 20 yearshttp://www.metafilter.com/146742/Neville%2DBrody%2Drebrands%2Dhis%2Dstudio%2Dafter%2D20%2Dyears
World-renowned British graphic designer Neville Brody <a href="http://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/15/neville-brody-research-studio-rebrand-brody-associates/">rebrands his studio "Research Studios" as "Brody Associates"</a> after around 20 years of doing business. Reason? Clients misunderstood the services of the studio under its old name. In addition to Brody stressing the importance of how the studio name affects how clients perceive its services, the article also describes Brody's studio models and how the various permutations led to the current model, one which declares that "the old model of a boutique agency doing everything is gone." tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.146742Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:44:32 -0800omar.aDon't Try Too Hard to Please Twitterhttp://www.metafilter.com/146360/Dont%2DTry%2DToo%2DHard%2Dto%2DPlease%2DTwitter
<a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/01/dont-try-too-hard-to-please-twitter-and-other-lessons-from-the-new-york-times-social-media-desk/">The NYT Social Media team pulls the curtain back on how Twitter works for them</a> with detailed examples of how changing text and descriptions and focus in their short messages resonated with readers, and which fell flat. Really interesting bit of transparency on their process, and results. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.146360Thu, 22 Jan 2015 09:22:38 -0800mathowieEmbodied Cognitionhttp://www.metafilter.com/146266/Embodied%2DCognition
<a href="https://medium.com/backchannel/the-deep-mind-of-demis-hassabis-156112890d8a">The Deep Mind of Demis Hassabis</a> - "The big thing is what we call transfer learning. You've mastered one domain of things, how do you abstract that into something that's almost like a <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329832.700-googles-factchecking-bots-build-vast-knowledge-bank.html?full=true">library of knowledge</a> that you can now usefully apply in a new domain? That's the key to general knowledge. At the moment, we are good at processing perceptual information and then picking an action based on that. But when it goes to the next level, the concept level, nobody has been able to do that." (<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/137452/hes-the-sort-of-genius-whos-not-very-good-at-boiling-a-kettle">previously</a>: <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/146207/What-do-you-think-of-machines-that-think#5897158">1</a>,<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/135641/The-science-fiction-part-of-the-show-is-that-the-Machine-is-accurate#5392755">2</a>) also btw...
-<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUhflgWvvoo">The next big frontier is the mind and brain</a>
-<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5PSyu7booU">Demis Hassabis on Computational Neuroscience</a>
-<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjG_Fx3D0o0">Systems neuroscience and AGI</a>
-<a href="http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2014/08/neural-networks-and-deep-learning.html">Neural Networks and Deep Learning</a>
-<a href="https://medium.com/backchannel/google-search-will-be-your-next-brain-5207c26e4523">Google Search Will Be Your Next Brain</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.146266Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:24:36 -0800kliulessImproving public policy (gov't) using behavioral economic evidencehttp://www.metafilter.com/146000/Improving%2Dpublic%2Dpolicy%2Dgovt%2Dusing%2Dbehavioral%2Deconomic%2Devidence
<a href="http://www.rajchetty.com/">Raj Chetty</a> gives the 2015 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_T._Ely">Richard T. Ely</a> Lecture (<a href="http://events.mediasite.com/Mediasite/Play/44057958d9fb44198c0f6a8ae47c35cd1d">video</a>, <a href="http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/ely_slides.pdf">slides</a>; talk begins at 9m) <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/2015/index.php">for the AEA</a>: <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/economists-are-finally-reconnecting-with-the-real-world/">Economists Are Finally Reconnecting With The Real World</a> - "<a href="http://www.rsablogs.org.uk/2015/enterprise/real-issues-face-completely-election/">Behavioral economics</a> — the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWs6bf7tvI">subfield</a> that <a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/01/job-quality-is-about-policies-not-technology.html">incorporates findings</a> from <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/01/07/375589387/brain-scans-may-help-predict-future-problems-and-solutions">psychology</a> and other <a href="http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2014/12/john-levi-martin-on-theory.html">social sciences</a> — can be <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/106010799435">used</a> to make <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/opinion/social-programs-that-work.html">better predictions</a> than the <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-08/one-economic-theory-to-explain-everything">standard models of economics</a>, and thus <a href="http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/michael-mccarthy-block-somers-market-fundamentalism-karl-polanyi">improve policies</a> related to <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/something-for-everyone-0000546-v22n1">how much individuals save</a>, <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/fuckonomics-0000541-v22n1">how much they work</a>, and <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/01/08/poverty-crosses-the-picket-fence/">where they live</a>." tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.146000Sat, 10 Jan 2015 09:09:39 -0800kliulessHow Women of Color Are Driving Entrepreneurship in the UShttp://www.metafilter.com/145988/How%2DWomen%2Dof%2DColor%2DAre%2DDriving%2DEntrepreneurship%2Din%2Dthe%2DUS
<blockquote>Women of color are a principal force behind one of the most important components of America's current marketplace and our nation's future economy: entrepreneurship. Today, women of color are the majority owners of close to one-third of all women-owned firms in the nation. Increased access to business capital—including microenterprises, venture-capital-funded firms, and crowd funding—has helped the number of women entrepreneurs grow substantially. But women of color face significant obstacles in starting their own businesses, leading to the question of why so many of them turn to entrepreneurship. <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/report/2014/06/10/91241/how-women-of-color-are-driving-entrepreneurship/">The growth of women of color as business owners is part of a long-term trend, but the question of why this trend is occurring is often left unanswered. Looking at the alternative to entrepreneurship—the traditional workplace—sheds light on some of the reasons.</a></blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.145988Fri, 09 Jan 2015 22:57:53 -0800infiniFollow the trend lines, not the headlines.http://www.metafilter.com/145789/Follow%2Dthe%2Dtrend%2Dlines%2Dnot%2Dthe%2Dheadlines
How can we get a less hyperbolic assessment of the state of the world? Certainly not from daily journalism. News is about things that happen, not things that don't happen. We never see a reporter saying to the camera, "Here we are, live from a country where a war has not broken out"—or a city that has not been bombed, or a school that has not been shot up. As long as violence has not vanished from the world, there will always be enough incidents to fill the evening news. And since the human mind estimates probability by the ease with which it can recall examples, <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/12/the_world_is_not_falling_apart_the_trend_lines_reveal_an_increasingly_peaceful.single.html">newsreaders will always perceive that they live in dangerous times.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.145789Fri, 02 Jan 2015 04:11:19 -0800ellieBOAPaging Ms. Frizzle, paging Ms. Frizzlehttp://www.metafilter.com/145584/Paging%2DMs%2DFrizzle%2Dpaging%2DMs%2DFrizzle
<a href="http://www.matthewhubble.com/Nobel_Laureate_May-Britt_Mosers_Dress.html">Why should Oscar nominees have all the fun?</a> May Britt Moser was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year (along with her husband, Edvard Moser, and colleague John O'Keefe) for <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/">"for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain"</a>. <a href="http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/may-britt.moser">Her bio and list of publications</a> can be found here. <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psi-vid/2014/12/10/glittering-nobel-gown-represents-scientists-work/">Designer Matthew Hubble</a> was inspired by the attention paid to movie stars and their clothing to create a custom dress for Britt Moser that combines leather, silk, and beads to illustrate neurons in a very new way.
<blockquote>"We used a mixture of sequins and beads for the cyton, and created the beautiful synapses similarly, but the myelin sheath on the axons we just couldn't make look beautiful and so decided a splash of artistic license is allowed after all."</blockquote> <a href="http://www.matthewhubble.com/col-rdr-page.html">Matthew Hubble's creations</a> include pieces inspired by molecule structures and Rome's Termini train station, in case you're looking for a last minute holiday win.
<a href="http://descience01.carbonmade.com/">What does gene targeting look like as a dress</a>? <a href="http://descience29.carbonmade.com/projects/5166715#1">Dermal replacement research?</a> <a href="http://descience38.carbonmade.com/">Complex systems</a>! One team discussed their experience <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/oct/13/when-tumours-meet-fashion-baena-gogh">here</a>.
<a href="http://www.fashiondescience.com/#!desciencevote/cmk">What is Descience?</a>
<blockquote>Descience emerged with the vision of fostering collaborations between two creative worlds and creating a new one that provides science with a new language and gives fashion a new source of inspiration.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.luckymag.com/style/2013/04/miss-frizzle-style">Just hoping to channel Miss Frizzle on </a><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jaimieetkin/the-definitive-ranking-of-ms-frizzles-outfits#.cka66a7DE">your own quotidian explorations</a>?<a href="http://www.sfn.org/News-and-Calendar/News-and-Calendar/News/Spotlight/2013/Art-of-Neuroscience"> Considering translating your neuroscience research onto a loom</a>? tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.145584Tue, 23 Dec 2014 18:16:30 -0800jetlagaddictMother of the Seahttp://www.metafilter.com/145276/Mother%2Dof%2Dthe%2DSea
Every year in Uto, a remote town at the Southern tip of Japan, <a href="https://books.google.fi/books?id=glWz131N4i4C&pg=PT126&lpg=PT126&ots=p7903XKTCT&focus=viewport&dq=Drew+festival+in+Uto+City,+Japan">a festival is held</a> to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04g7rd5">celebrate a woman</a> known locally as the <a href="http://www.hogsalt.com/wp-hogsalt/2014/01/mother-of-the-sea/">Mother of the Sea</a>. Dr Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker died <a href="http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/33871089/drkathleendrew-baker.pdf">without knowing</a> her research would save the <a href="http://www.seaweed.ie/aquaculture/noricultivation.php">Japanese seaweed industry</a> and lead to a world multi-billion dollar obsession with sushi. The <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00071616500650121">story</a> of <a href="http://www.hiroshimanori.co.jp/english/knowledge/history.html">nori</a> in Japan. tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.145276Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:16:05 -0800infini